Pakatan Harapan (PH) now says that identity politics contributed to its defeat in Negeri Sembilan. There is some truth to that, but it is incomplete if PH presents itself as merely the victim of identity politics. DAP also developed its own version of identity politics. And this is precisely why identity politics can be so effective. If PH wants to understand why it lost support, it should ask a harder question: why did identity politics become so politically effective again?